Head-To-Head Comparison: Immunocore (NASDAQ:IMCR) and Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS)

Immunocore (NASDAQ:IMCR) and Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.5% of Immunocore shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of Immunocore shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Immunocore and Apellis Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Immunocore	$310.20 million	6.41	-$51.09 million	($0.57)	-69.21
Apellis Pharmaceuticals	$781.37 million	3.16	-$197.88 million	$0.31	63.00

Immunocore has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Apellis Pharmaceuticals. Immunocore is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Apellis Pharmaceuticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Immunocore and Apellis Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Immunocore	1	4	7	0	2.50
Apellis Pharmaceuticals	2	7	9	0	2.39

Immunocore presently has a consensus price target of $61.00, suggesting a potential upside of 54.63%. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $33.06, suggesting a potential upside of 69.29%. Given Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Apellis Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Immunocore.

Profitability

This table compares Immunocore and Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Immunocore	-7.70%	-7.67%	-2.77%
Apellis Pharmaceuticals	4.43%	18.94%	5.04%

Risk and Volatility

Immunocore has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Apellis Pharmaceuticals beats Immunocore on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Immunocore

Immunocore Holdings plc, a commercial-stage biotechnology company, engages in the development of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, infectious, and autoimmune diseases. The company offers KIMMTRAK for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma. It also develops other programs for oncology, including tebentafusp that is in Phase 2/3 clinical trial to treat advanced cutaneous melanoma. In addition, the company’s product pipeline comprises IMC-F106C, which is in a Phase 3 clinical trial to treat first line advanced cutaneous melanoma; and in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in multiple tumor types, such as platinum resistant ovarian, non-small cell lung, and endometrial carcinoma. Further, it develops IMC-R117C, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to treat colorectal and gastrointestinal cancers; IMC-M113V, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to treat human immunosuppression virus; IMC-I109V, which is in a Phase I clinical trial in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus; IMC-T119C, which is in preclinical trial for multiple solid tumor cancers; IMC-P115C, which is in preclinical trial to treat multiple solid tumor cancers; and IMC-S118AI to treat type 1 diabetes and is in preclinical trial. Immunocore Holdings plc was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Abingdon, the United Kingdom.

About Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA). The company also develops APL-3007, a small interfering RNA, or siRNA, which is in a Phase 1 clinical trial, as well as an oral complement inhibitor that is in preclinical development. It has a collaboration and license agreement with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) for development and commercialization of pegcetacoplan; and a collaboration with Beam Therapeutics Inc. focused on the use of Beam’s base editing technology to discover new treatments for complement-driven diseases. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.